ww ingot at BHN 35

[firesar]

I have about 75 pounds of WWs that I made into ingots years ago. I just tested it and came up with a hardness of 35 or 36 BHN. Does any body have an idea what this is linotype ,babbit ,zinc or just rock hard WW and what is it good for?

THANK FOR THE HELP

[Crazy4nitro]

I Believe Monotype is 28ish
If you can Scratch the Lead with your Fingernail then I would suspect that the reading is incorrect.
I Have Monotype and it Laughs at my Finger Nail when trying to Scratch it.

'Nitro

[Slow Elk 45/70]

I don't know, if you made the ingots out of WW, I have a hard time imagining how they would test 35BHN. Straight WW usually fall between 9-12 BHN if they have not been water quenched that would get you 16-20. Heat treating the boolits can get you up the scale. If your sure it was WW to begin with, it would have to have been mixed with a lot of Linotype.

It would not be Linotype or zinc if it was WW and not current MFG.

Not doubting your methods, but how did you arrive at the hardness? Which tester did you use?

If it really is that hard, I would guess Linotype and you would have to cut it with lots of pure lead for normal CB shooting. IMHO

[Bret4207]

It could be anything. Hardness alone is not an indicator of a lead alloys content. Short of a chemical analysis there no way to say for sure. You can see what temp it melts at, see if it froths when muriatic acid hits it and there are other tests also. I'd start with melt temp.

[firesar]

I made these about 2000 or 2001 all out of WW and I did not water quench them if I remember right .
It melts at around 400 with time. I tried to soften it and size it for the bullets I make and it melted after 10min in the oven at 400. My toaster oven only goes to 400 or so . I did the finger nail test and it laughs at that Idea , It took work to file a flat spot for the lee bhn tester i used.
I will test a ingot that I cast last night and see if its as hard, at lest see if I can see the scale better.
I have been using this for some time and it worked fine it's just seems to be hard. I shoot then paper patched in a muzzle loader and have to work it to the right size, .512 down to .495 and it,s eating me and the equipment up.

Thanks again for the help

[Bladebu1]

I made these about 2000 or 2001 all out of WW and I did not water quench them if I remember right .
It melts at around 400 with time. I tried to soften it and size it for the bullets I make and it melted after 10min in the oven at 400. My toaster oven only goes to 400 or so . I did the finger nail test and it laughs at that Idea , It took work to file a flat spot for the lee bhn tester i used.
I will test a ingot that I cast last night and see if its as hard, at lest see if I can see the scale better.
I have been using this for some time and it worked fine it's just seems to be hard. I shoot then paper patched in a muzzle loader and have to work it to the right size, .512 down to .495 and it,s eating me and the equipment up.

Thanks again for the help it is useless pm me and I will send you my address I WILL TAKE IT OFF YOUR HAND :kidding:

[Willbird]

I made these about 2000 or 2001 all out of WW and I did not water quench them if I remember right .
It melts at around 400 with time. I tried to soften it and size it for the bullets I make and it melted after 10min in the oven at 400. My toaster oven only goes to 400 or so . I did the finger nail test and it laughs at that Idea , It took work to file a flat spot for the lee bhn tester i used.
I will test a ingot that I cast last night and see if its as hard, at lest see if I can see the scale better.
I have been using this for some time and it worked fine it's just seems to be hard. I shoot then paper patched in a muzzle loader and have to work it to the right size, .512 down to .495 and it,s eating me and the equipment up.

Thanks again for the help

I have only heat treated a few bullets so far, but none melted at 400 degrees, or 450 for that matter either. That low of a melt point is a curiosity, or your oven is way off on temp.

Bill

[runfiverun]

did you leave them sitting outside?
i bet lead oxide is about that hardness.

[firesar]

I tested another ingot and found that it is about 20 on the bhn scale . I tested a new cast ingot and got 14 bhn on the scale . This test is more like it the 35 I got was on another ingot that is harder for some reason.

thanks for all the ideas and help

[armyrat1970]

You can heat treat wws, not water drop, and get a BHN that, or close to that high but I believe over such a period of time they would not sustain that hardness.
I love Lee handloading equipment but I am not sure how accurate their hardness tester is. Never tried it but just reading about it seems there is room for faults. I know with my old eyes and bad eyesight I could never use it and get correct results.

[Bret4207]

It melts at 400 degrees?! Tim melts at 450 degrees F. I bet you have a whole lot of tin in that alloy since lead melts at 621 F. That or it's some weird alloy that has a slot of sulfur ( melts at 240 F) or something in it.

[AZ-Stew]

63/37 Tin/Lead solder melts at 361F (http://www.teamnovak.com/tech_info/how_to/solder/index.html), and linotype at 475F. Melting temp depends on the alloy.

If the only metals in the alloy are tin and lead, and it melts at 400F, the alloy would have to be about 55 tin/45 lead. Such an alloy would not harden to 35-36 BHN. I suspect measurement error.

Conventional wisdom is that you should use pure lead in muzzle loaders, but if you're getting good results, you might as well continue with your current procedure.

Regards,

Stew

[Bret4207]

Great link Stew, I've been looking for something like that.

[mikenbarb]

And make sure your tester is working properly because it definatly dont sound right for ww alloy. Or try testing in a couple different spots that are filed down some to see if you hit a hard spot or something in the ingot.